How the Internet of Things will Impact you...
There is no doubt that the Internet of Things (IoT) will have an impact on everyone's lives. The big question is how? The following are four ways that this author is forecasting will be the impacts of IoT on every day society...
Social Transparency
Often when you first meet a person all you get is their name and what they do. It typically takes several encounters to form a view about a person. Imagine a a world where as soon as you meet a person you know almost everything there is to know about them. Not just what they've posted on Facebook or LinkedIn but where they've come from, where they live, the stores they've recently visited and so on. We call this Social Transparency. IoT connects the physical world to the world of the Internet like never before and provides the ability to provide all this information about an individual on demand. This exposes people to a level of visibility to the people they interact with like never before and will no doubt change how we interact socially.
Locational Opportunism
If you've watched the movie Minority Report you would have seen an excellent demonstration of Locational Opportunism. The movie paints a picture of a future where everywhere you go you are automatically recognised and as a consequence your experience is optimised. For example, entering a retail store a scanner identifies you, greets you by name and tells you want relevant specials you might be interested in. You walk into a public train station. No more pass card as you are automatically recognised. You walk through a mall at lunch and Google Maps identifies some restaurants that you might be interested in (this is currently happening by the way). Or you sit beside a person for long enough and your mobile phone automatically recognises that this is a person you know and automatically trades contact details. These are all examples of Locational Opportunism.
Information Overload
Many of move about our days bombarded by texts, phone calls, emails, Twitter feeds and Facebook posts all carrying various bits of information about various things that may or may not be relevant to us. IoT currently is one of the top generators of big data and promises to be the #1 generator of big data in the future. The constant bombardment of data will get worst as he receive personal information about our own health from wearables, from the objects we use (that are connected to the internet) and from a myriad of sources now newly connected to the internet. The information overload that we now all experience promises to get even worst.
Business Disruption leading to Social Instability
Probably this is the most significant impact of IoT. IoT itself promises to radically change business and business models thereby impacting people and their roles (both in a positive and negative way). There are many examples of this. The industrial equipment that automatically identifies when it needs to be repaired and therefore eliminates the need for a mechanic to do proactive maintenance. The water well in the middle of the Australian Outback which has a sensor on it identifying then they well has run dry and notifies the farmer. There is no longer the need for the farm hand who has to periodically go out and check the well. The consumer item that has run out (e.g. a box of soap) and automatically sends a signal to ship another order thereby eliminating the need to go to the retail store. The sensor equipment attached a patient which is in turn attached to the internet and monitored by a central computer which eliminates the need for a nurse to do the rounds through the night at a hospital and provides more responsive diagnosis of problems. These are all examples of better, faster services provided by IoT which either eliminate or change jobs or change business models.
There is not doubt then that IoT will have a dramatic impact on our lives both for the positive and the negative. It will change the way we work. It will change our expectations sets and it will have an impact the full breadth and scale of which has yet to be determined. We will all need to seek strategies to prepare for an address the change that IoT will bring.
If you are interested in this discussion and would like to chat about my research feel free to contact me at info@theinternetofthings.expert
